RIGA - The resentment and contempt
that keeps Latvia a divided nation reached a shrill pitch earlier this
week in Liepaja, where an accused KGB officer stands trial in the first
war crimes trial outside Riga.

Yevgeny Savenko, 85, is accused of
ordering nine people to die and condemning four dozen others as enemies of
the Soviet regime while he served as a top KGB official in Liepaja in the
1940s.

Supporters of Savenko, a Russian citizen, helped fill the
court room in the port town of 90,000 to standing room
only.

Arguments reportedly broke out between Savenko supporters and
others in the courtroom, including an alleged victim in Liepaja to testify
against Savenko.

Other alleged victims are expected to trickle into
Liepaja this week to testify.

If convicted, Savenko faces possible
life in prison.

"I am to blame that I did not quit the KGB
earlier," he told the court on the opening day of the trial. "But as an
officer I had sworn allegiance and felt responsibility."

The
Prosecutor's Office argues that Savenko's crimes took place during both
Soviet occupations.

From 1940 through 1941 Savenko was the senior
investigator at the KGB's Riga office and allegedly set in motion a number
deportations and killings.

In 1944 Savenko became deputy head of
Liepaja's KGB office and director of a department aimed at stamping out
Latvia's fledgling nationalist forces that hung on in the early years
after World War II.

During the trial Savenko called them "gangs"
outfitted with "common thieves," according to reports.

Criminal
prosecutors opened a case against Savenko in May 1998 and arrested him
last October in Liepaja, where he and his wife still live.

Russian
officials have slammed Latvia in recent weeks for the prosecution of
Soviet war criminals, especially Vasily Kononovs, a "Red Partisan" who
fought Nazis and killed "traitors".

Former Russian President Boris
Yeltsin cited the Kononovs case as part of the reason he turned down a
medal awarded him last month by the Latvian government for his role in the
country's independence.

"There was support at the highest level of
government (for Kononovs)," said Vladimir Ivanov, a spokesman at the
Russian embassy in Riga.

Latvia has been vigilant in prosecuting
Soviet war crimes in recent years and now nationalist groups are asking
the parliament here to go a step further.

A letter calling on heads
of government from all three Baltic States to draw up a shared statement
on the Soviet occupation that includes calls to demand compensation from
Moscow for victims of Soviet oppression.

"The world has to learn
the historical truth," the letter reads. "To become able to distinguish
between the attackers - occupants - and those who defended their
fatherland."

The letter was signed by the Kurzeme District Club of
Repressed Persons, the Daugavas Vanagi National Union of War Veterans, the
National Soldiers Society and the Latvian National Partisans
Association.

Meanwhile, Latvia continues to draw criticism from
abroad over their failure to prosecute alleged war criminal that fought
for the Nazis, particularly the case of Konrads Kalejs who is believed to
be living in Australia.